Today was Helen’s birthday, an honour she shares with Pete – happy birthday to you both. Val tootled out the appropriate tune on her whistle, a gesture much appreciated by all. Regrettably, Helen didn’t enjoy her birthday, mainly because she is suffering from a bad attack of the shits. This is a situation with which I can sympathise – nevertheless, she gave out today one of the classic catch-phrases of our trip – “If you had diahorrea like I’ve got, you wouldn’t be able to climb hills either!”
After a lazy breakfast, we set off for today’s destination, Dhampus. This involved a steep descent to the valley below us, an equally steep ascent the other side to Lhandrung, then around + over the hillside. The first section went fine, except that we missed the right trail first time around, + had to backtrack, luckily not too far. We were pestered a little by girls on the way down, offering us leaves + demanding money, but otherwise the descent was hard work but no trouble. It’s good to see that there are no donkey trains on these trails. At first, they were picturesque, but rapidly became a pain in the ass (sorry), holding one up + occasionally nearly shoving one off the trail. We must have encountered a particularly polite bunch on that first day. Since then, they’ve been a right bumptious lot.
The ascent up the other side was very strenuous, real sweat pouring from the forehead stuff, up a steep, at times almost vertical, staircase. One of the Italians was being carried by a porter – he has a bad knee, I think. The porters are quite remarkable, the best of them being able to carry 100 kgs, + the Italian, no small feller, was being transported the way they take all their cargo: in a basket slung by a strap around the porter’s forehead. At the top, we all paused for a cup of tea, tho’ Helen + Sue embarrassed us hugely, first by getting stroppy at the kids, then for bitching to the woman after a disagreement about the bill. It is, after all, their country. H + S would be up in arms if, say, the Japanese behaved as badly in a NZ tea-shop.
From Lhandrung we soon came to another steep climb, which seemed to go on forever, + our party soon became strung out over quite a distance. Once that was finally conquered, however, it was a fast downhill swoop into Dhampus. The first lodge we came to seemed pleasant, + had a good menu, but it also had a large camping area, + determined on this occasion to avoid the Italians, we decided it might be wiser to move on. Dhampus seemed a very strung-out village, with lodges scattered all the way thro’, so it took a little while to decide where to stay, with various people going on reconnaissance missions, +, it must be said, tempers becoming a little frayed. At the end of a long day, one does not want to fart around looking for somewhere to stay. Eventually, we settled upon a small place right at the other end of the village, cosy + friendly. We did have a few problems with food, with the people in charge not understanding what we wanted. Val had to wait 4 hours to get a bowl of dhal – she wanted it straight away; it came with her meal. (And this despite repeated requests + reminders.) I circumvented any possible difficulties by eating at the lodge opposite – their hotel wasn’t as inviting, but the food was good + the service efficient.
A huge downpour of rain hit us late in the afternoon, so we sat on the balcony of our hotel + looked at it. We also smoked some dope, all except Helen, the birthday girl. But as the rain eased, then stopped, we began to see the Italians wandering around on the street below us, first in ones + twos, then in larger groups. It was just like a covert army manoeuvre. We couldn’t believe it, especially when they honed in on… no, yes, our lodge. This was, apparently, the last night of their trek, +, especially since it was raining, they wanted to have a party in some cosy little restaurant. What could we do? We had already ordered our food. When it came, we saw that a special table downstairs had been kept for the 5 of us, so we put as brave a face upon it as we could, + went down to eat, trying to pretend it was really some wonderfully atmospheric little Italian restaurant. We really didn’t have to pretend that hard. The food was OK – Val + I both enjoyed ours – but when Sue + I left as the advance guard to go over to the other place for dessert, the behaviour of the Wops, with the full connivance of the owner of the place, was disgraceful. They immediately grabbed our chairs, + very nearly elbowed the others out, even tho’ they were still eating.
The rest of the evening was a bit of a wash-out. Helen had gone to bed, Sue was sulking, the rest of us had nothing to say. So, soon enough, we went to bed too.
It really does beggar belief that we shluld, despite our precautions, suffer yet anlther night. Apologies for the racial slur, by the way, but they were very annoying.
